702 Music withKenny Maistry

For many years, local communities like those of Hartbeespoort have made efforts to raise awareness around and push for the clean-up of dams plagued by the growth of hyacinth.

Hyacinth is the most invasive and rapidly proliferating aquatic weed in the world.

While hundreds of hyacinth in the Hartbeespoort Dam have been removed successfully through the Harties Foundation, it remains a problem.

Azania Mosaka spoke to Hya Matla Organics CEO Matome Malatjie to find out more about the company's solution to convert the invasive plant into a fertiliser.

The partnership is formed out of Malawi, where the problem was picked up; so we formed a partnership within South Africa to say how can we have a trial and we identified Hartbeespoort Dam because there were a lot of complaints.

— Matome Malatjie, CEO - Hya Matla Organics

Everything we do is proudly South African, from the process itself in terms of the harvest plus the design of the machine.

— Matome Malatjie, CEO - Hya Matla Organics

We had to invent this machine which mechanically harvests and shreds the hyacinth. We split it into an organic matter and we also have a process where we isolate what we call liquid fertiliser.

— Matome Malatjie, CEO - Hya Matla Organics

Click on the link below to hear more from Malatjie and find out more about the process...